June 17, 2010Brussels – Chicago – DallasThe self-check in denied me twice. The attendant, polite and dare I say pleasant, ushered me to the front of the sprawling line and assured me it would be taken care of. She was wrong.As it turns out, someone at Peace Corps or SATO (the government travel agency) canceled […]

June 16, 2010Naples/Milan, Italy – Brussels, BelgiumIt wasn’t there. I was one of the first people to the luggage carousel. I’m not sure why, when I rush I only succeed in waiting and watching as the conveyor goes around instead of people watching as I mosey through the gates. Still, I rushed. And when I […]

June 15, 2010Napoli, ItalyI woke up in the wee hours of the morning not feeling right. Sick is too harsh a phrase but not exactly wrong. And so I never ventured down to breakfast (the thing that, besides the great panaromic view of positano and the sprawling ocean, I love best about our hotel). The […]

June 14, 2010Amalfi, ItalyIt was the meal I’d dreamed about when I dreamed of Italy. Beginning with a conversation in italian that I didn’t understand between our host and the restrauntuer. it was finally decided that the owner should prepare whatever she wanted. And so we waited, sipping peach sangria (made from local wine and […]

June 10, 2010Naples, ItalyStanding in front of the ticket machine in downtown Naples trying to decipher the “Itaglish” that popped up on the screen when we requested the instructions in English, we fumbled with change that for some reason continued to be rejected. As we rummaged for alternative money (realizing late a hastily made sign […]

Napoli, Italy (Naples)June 9, 2010 We took a taxi…our driver, chatted in Italian the whole way, intermittently pausing to allow shana to pipe up in Spanish. I threw in random words here and there and a lot of laughter, giddy at the prospect of good food.The driver pointed at himself and said Guiseppo and then […]

Transit is the most inconvenient time for me. Of all the things about living in flux that I’ve become accustomed to and take in stride, being in transit between places – the time and space between morocco to libiera and Liberia to Italy for instance – is maddening. Packing for different purposes, one eye in […]

What looks like the absence of a plan is actually my plan. Losing myself to the medina, the moment, the opportunity to be caught in the current of a place is entirely the point…entirely my point.I realize most people prefer a plan. A schedule. A map. People prefer an order in the chaos of uncertainty. […]

Big and deficient, at least in overt gestures of the decorative accoutrements I’ve become accustomed to, Casablanca appeals to me. It is a biased affection, bread from the closest thing to anonymity I’ve experienced in any city here. Big as it is, few people try to sell to me here –hard or soft.Part of it, […]